Edward Snowden Q&A: NSA whistleblower answers your questions

reply to post by Indigo5

and if things ever get to hot, the simply "dissolve" and change their name to a new corp, like Blackwater did...

Yes, you saw that, I saw that, but if you ask the average voter... they never heard of them.
It sad how little knowledge of current events and our own government the average person has.
I believe that society is nudged into that 'blind sheeple' mentality. Do not ask questions.... just say 'My, my that's terrible' then go back to playing X-Box or watching 'Dancing with the Stars'.

reply to post by IAmbivalenceI

Bravo!! I couldn't agree more with your post.

Every time I walk out the front door I assume I'm under surveillance. And when I connect to the net and broadcast my presence to the world, I know I am. It's just the times we live in.

I've yet to read of any disclosures made by Snowden that surprised me in the least. I've taken all this stuff for granted for a long, long time. It cracks me up reading all these comments from people who seem to be shocked and betrayed by it all. I know the public in general has become more and more uninformed and illiterate over the past 40 years, but this is ridiculous.

At any rate, when the next major terrorist attack takes place in the U.S., and it will, I can hear it now - all the same folks screaming now about their lack of privacy will then be slamming the Administration and NSA over how inept they are in keeping an eye on things, and how they simply looked the other way when the evidence was right under their noses.

Sometimes I think people just like to create drama to enhance an otherwise mundane, meaningless life.

PS: I wonder what people think a spy agency does all day?

Question: Edward, a friend of mine works for the NSA. He still actively denies that anything you have done or said is legitimate, completely looking past any documented proof that you uncovered and released.

Is this because at lower levels of the agency, they don't see what's going on in the intelligence gathering section? Or do you suspect he simply refuses to see any wrongdoing by his employer?

Snowden's response:

So when you work at NSA, you get sent what are called "Agency-All" emails. They're what they sound like: messages that go to everybody in the workforce.

In addition to normal bureaucratic communications, they're used frequently for opinion-shaping internally, and are often classified at least in part. They assert (frequently without evidence) what is true or false about cases and controversies in the public news that might influence the thinking about the Intelligence Community workforce, while at the same time reminding them how totally screwed they'll be if they talk to a journalist (while helpfully reminding them to refer people to the public affairs office).

Think about what it does to a person to come into their special top-secret office every day and get a special secret email from "The Director of NSA" (actually drafted by totally different people, of course, because senior officials don't have time to write PR emails) explaining to you why everything you heard in the news is wrong, and how only the brave, patriotic, and hard-working team of cleared professionals in the IC know the truth.

Think about how badly you want to believe that. Everybody wants to be valued and special, and nobody wants to think they've perhaps contributed to a huge mistake. It's not evil, it's human.

Tell your friend I was just like they are. But there's a reason the government has -- now almost two years out -- never shown me to have told a lie. I don't ask anybody to believe me. I don't want anybody to believe me. I want you to look around and decide for yourself what you believe, independent of what people says, indepedent of what's on TV, and independent of what your classified emails might claim.

www.reddit.com...

He is still doing Q&A's.

More citizens need to pay attention to what our government is doing and how our privacy in the digital age is becoming extinct.